Archive for the ‘ABC Records’ Category

Hoagy Lands

Thursday, August 11th, 2011

Listen: Baby Come On Home / Hoagy Lands
Baby Come On Home / Hoagy Lands

Anything associated with Bert Berns gets my radar sky high. A master of New York RnB productions, I grabbed this in a stack somewhere along life’s journey years ago. The not often used black and white, as opposed to red and white, Atlantic promo label giving this obscure single from ’64 even more of an odd one out feel.

There was no way ‘Baby Come Back Home’ was going to disappoint despite the rather un-soulful sound of an artist named Hoagy Lands. Gladly, that first instinct, triggered by the Bert Berns namecheck, was right. The record is a gem.

Through the years I’ve picked up his other titles on Laurie and ABC, yet always found it baffling that, for such an obvious musical fit, ‘Baby Come On Home’, with Cissy Houston, Dee Dee Warwick and Judy Clay on backups, became his only Atlantic release.

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Posted in ABC Records, Atlantic, Bert Berns, Cissy Houston, Dee Dee Warwick, Hoagy Lands, Judy Clay, Laurie Records, Led Zeppelin | Comments Off

The Impressions

Saturday, August 8th, 2009

impressionswinnerus, The Impressions, Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler, ABC Records, Stateside

impressionswinneruka, Curtis Mayfield, The Impressions, Stateside, ABC Records

Listen: We’re A Winner / The Impressions ImpressionsWinner.mp3

Never ever occurred to me that on this single from ’68, Curtis Mayfield not only recycled the lyric ”movin’ on up” but also “keep on pushing”. He did it often. Let’s call it his style, because there are too many great qualities about the guy to imply it’s a negative. Hadn’t heard this for ages until I spent an afternoon a few weeks back spinning records at Mike Goldsmith’s. He’s getting a pretty decent 7″ collection together and wanted the above UK A label off me, I was too greedy and diseased with whatever that new condition is (ADD, ADHD or something, probably plain old addiction) to trade it away. Maybe someday. He has a few nice US Reprise Jethro Tull stocks that I need. Badly.

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Ray Charles & His Orchestra

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

raycharlesmovinusa, ray charles, atlantic

Listen: I’m Movin’ On / Ray Charles & His Orchestra RayCharlesMovin.mp3

raycharlesbelieveusa1, ray charles, atlantic,

Listen: I Believe To My Soul / Ray Charles & His Orchestra RayCharlesBelieve.mp3

1959, the year this double sider mid-charted, also marked the end of his time with Atlantic. A few raw R&B singles spilled into his later ABC Records output, like ‘Busted’, but as it turned out, this was the end of a real deal era, not unlike Elvis pre-draft or The Rolling Stones with Brian Jones. Unfortunately there are many examples.

Love Sculpture covered ‘I Believe To My Soul’ on BLUES HELPING. It’s where I first heard it. I played the record a few years back, this after a long, long patch of collecting all the originals, and God did it sound white. Ouch. Still the recording is nicely time period, meaning plenty of crystal clear separation with lots of space exposing all the good and bad. Despite the sugary rockabilly of Dave Edmunds’ later stuff, he was obviously a pretty flash guitarist at the start. Ray Charles’ version is everything I could have wished for – brings me right to some fantasy juke joint backwoods honky tonk, whatever those places were described as. I like to think this is what it sounded like.

In similar fashion, The Rolling Stones OUT OF OUR HEADS included Hank Snow’s ‘I’m Movin’ On’. I was nuts about the track and convinced some friends to come see him at The State Fair. He was playing straight C&W by then though (’69), and did not rock out in the slightest. I bet it was probably way better than I could appreciate at the time.

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Posted in ABC Records, Atlantic, Brian Jones, Dave Edmunds, Elvis Presley, Hank Snow, Love Sculpture, Ray Charles, The Rolling Stones | No Comments »